By Steph Farnsworth and Jack Sargeant
Jump to section: Pre-F1 | Toyota | Sauber
In his first season karting at the age of nine years old Kamui Kobayashi finished 3rd showing early promise. He was to stay in karts and harvest his talent (taking four titles) but it wasn’t until 2004 that he would progress out of the formulae.
In 2003 Kobayashi raced to second in the Formula Toyota Championship and not long after in 2004 he signed for Toyota’s Driving Academy. He entered Formula Renault (achieving two wins in the Italian series), but it was in his second year in the Italian and European classes where he would take both titles.
In the Euro Series of Formula 3 he finished up eighth, a big achievement for a rookie but, he suffered in GP2 and only managed 16th overall for two years – one of which was winless.
Kamui Kobayashi driving in practice for Toyota in the Brazilian Grand Prix 2009 - Photo © Toyota F1 World
When Timo Glock was absent due to injury from the Toyota squad in 2009 it was up to Kobayashi to fill his cockpit. His two races certainly made an immediate impression; at Brazil he kept title contender Button behind him for several laps and made a nice pass on Kazuki Nakajima. However, a collision with Nakajima raised eyebrows at the lengths Kamui was prepared to go to gain a position, but he was spared punishment from the stewards. At Abu Dhabi he overtook Kimi Raikkonen at the start and kept him behind, and also overtook champion-in-waiting Button, although the Briton was on cold tires. Kamui would battle on to finish 6th and beat teammate and previous Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli.
His performances were a surprise considering his mixed results in lower Formulae but Kobayshi quickly won the support of many by his gutsy and flat-out drives. More importantly, he caught the attention of Peter Sauber who signed the rookie to his F1 team (Sauber) for 2010.
Kobayashi had a shaky start to the year, retiring from six of the eight opening races, through a mixture of driver error and mechanical failures, and it wasn’t long before his drive at Sauber was called into question. However, they stuck by him and they’ll be glad they did as he vastly improved over the second half of the season. He began to consistently score points with his best result coming at the British Grand Prix when he finished 6th. He was visibly quicker than teammates Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld, and finished 12th overall in the drivers’ championship.
For 2011 he will team up with Sergio Perez in the young Mexican’s debut F1 season at Sauber.
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